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X-Men Comic Writer Wanted Bob Hoskins to Play Wolverine

Fans are only days away from the theatrical release of Logan, the latest film in the X-Men universe, and the final appearance of Hugh Jackman as Wolverine. With a projected $80 million opening weekend (a projected $170 million worldwide), and ticket sales topping the Fandango charts, it's safe to say the movie is one of the most anticipated films of the year. The film has already hit home with critics, too, and is currently sitting at 94 percent on Rotten Tomatoes.

Now, one of the best-known writers for Marvel, Chris Claremont, has also praised the film in a new interview. As well as talking about how happy he is with the film, Claremont also reveals who he originally imagined in the role.

The interview, for THR's Heat Vision, includes plenty of high praise for the film from Claremont, who describes it as "the Logan film I’ve been waiting for. It was what I’d actually hoped The Wolverine should’ve been," and says that it finally felt like the characters that he has been writing since the '70s. Claremont was also asked about his original choice to play Wolverine, before Jackman was cast, and revealed that back in the late '80s, he had envisioned Bob Hoskins in the role.

"...to me it seemed perfectly rational to have Angela Bassett [as Storm] and Bob Hoskins, because the image I had of Hoskins was from the films he made in England where they emphasized, in terms of his character, the harshness, the Cockney, the brutality of him... That is Logan. That instant rage. But like I said, this is the world of 1988."

This isn't the first time that Claremont has said that he would have loved to see Hoskins in the role, although it is possibly the first time that he has expanded on why to quite this extent.

There is little doubt that Hoskins would have made an interesting Wolverine, had that casting worked out (and had the movies been made a decade earlier). Unlike Jackman, who has often been criticized for being too tall to accurately embody the character, Hoskins' height and physical appearance is much closer to that of the Wolverine from the comics. As Claremont points out, he would also have been more than capable of expressing the kind of rage and brutality that Logan is known for.

While it is interesting to speculate about an X-Men without Jackman, and Hoskins would have been a phenomenal choice in many ways, this is a casting choice that was never meant to be. As Claremont points out, Hoskins would have been the perfect choice in 1988, and in the year 2000, he was already older than Jackman is now. While fans won't get to see Hoskins in the role, they can begin speculating who will be up next to don the adamantium claws.